Tag Archives: teamwork

Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Social Studies

Team work makes the dream work

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Today the children have been developing their team working skills during a variety of different experiences.

We played ‘Feed the Teddy’ on the Promethean Board and worked together as a team to count up to 5 cakes to feed the teddy.

“That’s number 5 like my fingers, I have 5 fingers”

“Teddy is eating 5 cakes”

Next some of the children worked on a new painting technique, they had lots of fun mixing different colours in the shaving foam, and printing it on to the paper. The children made their own individual pieces and also worked together making larger prints.

“hold this side, I’ll get that one”

“1,2,3 down”

Finally some of the children were working together to build a garage for the cars. They built ramps for the cars to go up and down, and roads for the cars to drive on.

“Can you put that long plank up there so the cars can drive down”

“I put this one up here to stop the ramp falling”

Children develop very important life skills when working as part of a team such as problem solving, leadership and communication skills which they will need as they grow into adults.

Expressive Arts

Junk modelling robot

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We have been enjoying exploring the junk modelling area since moving in to the Studio room last week. The children discussed what they would like to make and made a plan to make a robot but what would they need, they decided to list all the things they would need.

”We need glue”
”and Cellotape”
“and of course, junk!”

The children used their imagination and problem solving skills to figure out how to make the parts stay together.

“You need to leave the glue to dry so it sticks”


The children worked together as a team making sure they followed their design so that everything was in the right places.

“paint it yellow like a bumble bee”

To finish off they decided to paint it yellow and add some cardboard tubes for arms.

The yellow paint didn’t cover the box as well as we thought, so the children improvised and used yellow tissue paper instead.

We are always looking for cardboard boxes (big and small), bottle lids, cartons, cereal boxes etc. to add to our collection so save your recycling and instead of putting it all in your blue bins, bring it in to us!

Uncategorized

Magic Magnets

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Today in the discovery room we looked at magnets and how they work.

We decided to select different items we found around our playroom and investigated to see if they were magnetic using a selection of different sized magnets.

We used our mathematical skills to discover that magnets can pull together objects or push them away. We also found that although we had two of the same item, only one was magnetic. This is because objects that look the same are not always made of the same material.

We recorded our findings on a chart. It showed us what items were magnetic and those that were non-magnetic. We discovered that magnetic things were made of metal but items that were made of wood or plastic were not magnetic, unless they had a little bit of metal in them!

We loved listening to each other making our predictions whether something was magnetic or not, everybody made sure they were taking turns when choosing what items to test. We loved guessing the material!

Why don’t you have a look around the house and guess what materials are magnetic or not!

Literacy

Let’s make Scones

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Today in the Home Room we had a look at some recipes and chose to make scones. We gathered up the ingredients, some were in the cupboards and some in the fridge.

We then washed our hands and put our aprons on.

We carefully measured out the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. We checked the numbers on the scales to see when the spoonfuls of flour reached 300g . We talked about the different sizes of spoons as we needed  2 tablespoons of sugar, but only one teaspoon of baking powder. Then we added the oat milk .

Today we added cherries to our scones.  We discussed our safety rules when using a knife and then carefully cut up lots of cherries to add to our mixture.

We developed our fine motor skills by using the rolling pins and cutters to make the scones. We counted out the number of scones we had each made and put them on the oven tray ready to bake.

We took the scones to the oven.  We discussed the oven being very hot and this part has to be done by a adult. Our scones need to be in the  oven for 15 minutes, so let’s check the clock!⏰ Our scones are ready and they look very tasty.

Now it’s tidy up time! We worked together to put our ingredients back in the cupboards and fridge, swept the floor and wiped the table.
We are looking forward to trying out our scone recipe again!

Outdoor Learning

We are gardeners!

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Today in our garden a group of children have been super busy taking care of our lovely planting area. Firstly we had to weed our planters using gardening tools then we used our gross motor skills for digging, carrying and lifting. As we were digging we came across some insects that live in the soil and mud, so we made sure that we were extra careful.


After we weeded our planter we went into the greenhouse to have a look at what we could plant, the children decided they would like to sow beetroot seeds. We had a chat about when is best to grow certain ones and the affects the different seasons and weather have on the plants and all the different fruits, vegetables and flowers.


The children will be a big part of taking responsibility and care of our vegetables and flowers.  We had a chat with the children about being patient when waiting for our vegetables and flowers to grow and that we will need to keep good care of them by watering regularly for them to flourish. 

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Science Citrus explosions

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Today some of the children in the discovery room wanted to make an explosion. We decided to try and make one using lemons and tangerines. We placed the orange and tangerine onto a plate and then took the tops off and squished the insides of the fruit to bring out some of the juice. We then squeezed some washing up liquid into the juice and added some food colouring and a teaspoonful of baking soda. After we did this, we watched as the fruits exploded with colourful bubbles! It was so exciting!!
We talked about the science and how the experiment worked. Citrus fruit contains citric acid which has a chemical reaction when it mixes with the baking soda due to form carbon dioxide, which is a gas. Once the citric acid and the baking soda have neutralised each other the reaction stops and no more gas is made. The children had so many things to say about the experiment including:
“ I think the lemon has more citrus acid in it than the tangerine because the lemon has bigger bubbles”

“I want my explosion to be rainbow colours”” Look the blue and red has turned black”
“I need more baking powder I want a big explosion “ “ It feels slimy if you touch it” “The lemon smells nice”


We really enjoyed participating in this fun science activity.

Outdoor Learning

Exploring and developing our garden!

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Today in our garden we have been super busy! The children have worked hard as team to create a fairy garden! Firstly they painted the wooden logs their favourite colour, we then explored the garden to see what other resources we could use then got started, creating it all by themselves using a variety of natural loose parts, Well done!






The children then decided they’d like to make a potion made from a mixture of water, mud, acorns , grass and leaves.  They had lots of fun!

The mud kitchen is a very popular area in our garden. It is an exciting, messy and creative area to play in. The children experience sensory and imaginative play as well as developing skills in numeracy, science, interaction and communication. I wonder what they will make next time! 

Expressive Arts

Ahoy ship!

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The children in the Studio today created a fantastic story which started with a cardboard box .

The cardboard box became a boat and then the sea was added using a blue piece of material.

Pink material was wrapped around and suddenly there was a fish in the sea with the boat.  Then some brightly coloured mermaids joined  the gathering.


Next a crab with great big claws came to join the sea travellers.


The fish, mermaids and crab danced around the ship and the ship’s captain shouted “Ahoy ship!” and the fish said “We are swimming to America!”

The children’s role play recorded in this observation was truly creative.  They used the materials around them creatively, they worked as a team to tell the imaginative story and they directed each other’s movements like actors in a play.

“Play is the highest form of research” said Albert Einstein and we can’t agree more.

 

Digital Technology

Forwards and backwards with the bee bots🐝

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This morning in the discovery room the children decided to make a track for the bee bots to move around on.

They used different shaped blocks to create a track that was flat enough for the bee bots to move along .
We looked at the arrows on top and discussed what they mean.

”This button means forward”

”what is this one mean?”

“backwards backwards”


The children used the direction cards and placed them along the track.

“Let’s  go forward like this card”

”The green one is go”


They used their numeracy skills as they counted how many times they  pressed the forwards button and how many places the bee moved forward.

In the end they raced the bees to see who would move the furthest, it was a lot of fun cheering on the bees.

 

Expressive Arts

Cars and ramps

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Today the children have  been super busy making ramps for their cars using the blocks. They decided to make their own ramps. The toddlers self selected their own paint colours and then dipped their cars into the paint and set them off down the ramp. The children noticed that some of the cars went further than others, some went down fast, some slow and that the tyres all made different marks.  They added some textured balls to see what different marks they left. “ That’s left a bumpy mark”  They learned some new concepts including stop, go, up, down, fast, slow developing their language skills and learning about cause and effect.

When asked what they would like to do next with the cars L said “ make a garage “ So they set about creating one. H said “we should use these boxes”. L said “ I’m painting it green, it needs to have a tunnel and space for the fire engine”. The children demonstrated great team work when planning together to create their garage. They were proud of their finished result and had great fun playing together.